Rôles, Attentes et Conflits: la Religion et les Eglises Dans les Sociétés en Transition

Abstract

Drawing on data from the European Values Study (EVS) 1999, the author gives a brief overview of religions in post-communist societies and Croatia's place among them. He shows that for some societies religion is still crucial for their overall functioning. In order to understand this role, which is only partially visible on the level of empirical data, and to point out some difficulties in the sociological approach to it, the author discusses two themes: religion and war, and religion and transition. Although the recent war on the territory of the former Yugoslavia was not a religious one, the Churches played a key role both at the symbolic level of maintenance of separate national identities, and on the level of complex social processes. The contradictory and uncertain nature of transition processes additionally complicated the role of religion in society and partly prevented its accommodation to new social circumstances. These elements can all be seen in the different roles that religion has to play, contradictory expectations of the public towards the Church and sharp social conflicts that divide society.